Johnny C
Jhonen Vasquez's first work. Image:Nyy_1.jpg Image:Nny_2.jpg JTHM is a story of a killer who doesn't want to kill. Johnny the Homicidal Maniac Book #1 Traumatize thy neighbor Nny meets Squee, and gets into a fight with his Teddy Bear. A survey in Hell A man stops on Nny's doorstep to get some answers about a crime wave. He sends Nny overboard by asking something he didn't take kindly to. Untitled Johnny is at the local Taco Hell when we learn that he really dislikes the word "wacky". Unfortunately, that is the only way to describe what he did to everyone and everything in the restaurant after someone uses it in reference to him. Untitled Johnny takes time out from torture to write in his journal. Another 2 am Nny is being told by the doughboys, Mr. Eff and Psycho, to kill himself, while the spirit of his dead bunny (Nail Bunny) attempts to stop their plans. Nailbunny failes, but Nny is saved buy a commercial about diareiha. Dear Diary Johnny the Homicidal Maniac Book #2 Goblins Nny has an intelligent conversation with his newest victim, a man named Edgar Vargas. Edgar fails to reason with Johnny to let him go because his blood is needed to paint a certain wall in the house, and Nny says how sorry he is that he is forced to kill this man, saying he seemed nice. Then the switch is pulled on Edgar as Nny watches him be crushed by the device. As he is leaving he says, "Well, that did nothing for me." Things that make noise Nny talkes about how most of the time he ignores the sounds his victims make, but every once in awhile, the noise turns to words. This deeply disturbes him and makes him think about what he's doing. In the end he wonders, "Why I don't just buy earplugs." Untitled Johnny has a pretty girl in his straightjacket who is about to pay the price for laughing at him with her friends. He remarks on her outer beauty and how it differs so dramatically from the inner. He talks about how he might not be nice to look at on the outside, but on the inside, he then cuts himself off by shoving the scythe through her mouth. It ends with, "Dear Die-ary, Today I learned that on the inside, I'm pretty fucking ugly." Untitled Johnny is in rare form as he is on a date and actually enjoying himself with a bookstore employee named Devi. Such happiness is foreign, and he consults the two styrofoam doughboys about what he should do. Feeling the need to "immortalize the moment" because it is so special (and because he is under the doughboy's influence), Nny charges at Devi with two knives. Devi kicks some homicidal ass and beats feet home while Johnny stays put, bleeding on the floor. 2:15 am Johnny has an early-morning craving for a brainfreezy but takes a suicidal relapse as he finds the machine is shut off. He decides to go out with a literal bang, taking the clerk with him. He uses the only bullet in the store's gun on the clerk and promptly sets his sights on a Cherry Fiz-Wiz without giving what happened another thought. Dear die-ary Nny remarks on how in a mirrored world, there is no evil, and he wishes he could go into the mirror. Johnny the Homicidal Maniac Book #3 Untitled Nny goes out for a stroll, listening to Beethoven. He gets side-tracked by some smokers sitting outside of a café and decides to take his business inside instead of his previous engagement at a club. After a pretty violent montage, the scene ends with flying shrapnel and a hopping Nny with a swelling chorus from "Ode to Joy". A bad person Johnny saves Todd (Squee) from a man at the mall. He attempts to explain to Squee that something like this is nothing to devote nightmares to but goes a little overboard. Untitled Johnny attempts humor. Everyone has their own ideas about what's funny. His is sick humor you don't want to hear. Jhonny the you-know-what! Two new faces, Tess and Dillon, walk out a movie theater. Dillon complains about a certain someone who kept telling him to be quiet during the movie. That certain someone then zaps the consciousness out of Dillon with his tazer. Both are now in the bowels of number 777 preapring for some "intense fun", while Tess is mad at Dillon for landing them there. JTSM Other-wordly powers are keeping Johnny from dying, as he duly demonstrates by jamming a tazer into his head. He puts the doughboys (who are now able to move around freely) in their place by surviving but only because he forgot to charge the batteries further proving the point that something doesn't want him to die. And now, laughter to wake the entire neighborhood! Untitled Nny gets a new victim to help empty out his fridge. This daunting task is rewarded with ... freedom! Dear-Die-ary Johnny the Homicidal Maniac Book #4 Descent Nailbunny hints that something is influencing Nny to kill. Jhonney realizes that this is true, but he and Nailbunny don't know who's influencing him. Nny also realizes that he doesn't like what he's doing. Untitled Tess demands some answers from Nny who has just wandered into the room. He goes off on a tangent and brings a wall into the conversation, explaining that he must kill to keep it wet. And just as he is regaining consciousness, Dillon gets shocked silly yet again. Untitled Johnny comes to Squee for a band-aid. A call Devi is obviously still shaken up from her date's attempt on her life when we see her talking it over with a friend of hers, Tonja. She sees Nny, about to cry, for a split second. She decides to call Johnny and hears a succession of strange noises through the ear piece (WZZZZ, BLAM!, WHUMP!, AAAAIEEEEEEEEK!). She then decides to stay inside for a while. A call? Jhonney decides to put a gun onto his phone, so he can die intstead of killing others. He finds out te doughboys were influencing him, and screams: "NO! I CONTROL ME!" and shuts off the machine. However, it was already off. He gets the call from Devi, and is shot in the head. Diary entry "Dear Die-ary, I seem to be dead." Johnny the Homicidal Maniac Book #5 An eventful day Tess meets fellow inmate Krik who has just burrowed into her room through the floor. Krik helps her escape, but Dillon is eaten by a monster coming out of the wall opposite before they can do anything else except run. Untitled Tess and Krik have evaded the wall monster (dubbed "Moose") for now and venture into the topic of Krik's capture by Nny. Moose catches up and they run through the bowels of the house some more, passing other detainees as they go. Talking to Styrofoam Tess begins to spill her guts on the floor since the chase has slowed down. She and Krik run into the two doughboys who inadvertently tell them that Johnny in in the next room. They say they have won their battle. Then they start talking about their past and you find out that "Moose" was controlling Psycho-D, who wanted to become one with "Moose" again. Mr. Fuck (Mr. Eff) wanted to be free from "Moose". Moose then rips them apart and integrates them back into himself, while Tess and Krik watch. After that Tess and Krik run into the next room where they find a special person lying on the floor bleeding to death. Nny. Untitled Tess and Krik stumble upon Nny lying on the floor. The two boys duke it out: Nny with his wit and Krik with his foot. But Johnny has just enough time left to evoke pathos. He's not ready to go. He never even got to see the monster he's been feeding for so long! Krik then kills Johnny by kicking his head in. Moose bursts in and takes care of Krik. He and Tess fall into the void that is the universe now that Johnny is dead. Thus, proving his point that he was never supposed to die. Johnny the Homicidal Dead Boy is last seen lying on a floating piece of floorboard. Tess most likely escaped. Nny's last writings Sometimes... You can cry until there is nothing wet in you. You can scream and curse until your throat rebels and ruptures. You can pray, all you want, to whatever god you think will listen. And, still, it makes NO difference. It goes on, with no sign as to when it might release you. And you never know that if it ever did relent... It would not be because it cared. Johnny the Homicidal Maniac Book #6 Untitled Well, Nny has died and gone to heaven. But even though he's dead, he finds he's not supposed to be there. And God seems to be no help at all. He needs help, because he doesn't want to kill any longer. Untitled Torture and sandwiches in a no-plot page. Untitled Nny learns he has super powers. Abuse of them lands him in the underworld. Untitled Nny finds himself in hell. He meets with Senior Diablo (as he likes to be called) and gets his questions answered. Poor Johnny finds out that he's basically a shit-absorbing sponge, a "wastelock". And he seems none too happy. Untitled Johnny is getting shown around hell by someone he put there. After meeting many other contemptible people, Satan disguised as a cheerleader tells him he's got to go back up to Earth, possibly losing his hair in the process. The R is for ressurected! Johnny comes home to a Bub's Burger Boy, the only talking inanimate object left in the house. Nny feels great and in control so he watches TV. Untitled A fatal robbery causes problems when shopping for Frooty Pops (Nny does not kll in this one). Nny wonders if he should pay for the popcicle, even though the man is dead. He then thinks that maybe the man had a family. In the last pannel he is seen holding a bunch of pocicles say, "Such a moral delema." Dear Die-ary "Dear Die-ary, I've been to heaven and hell... And I still don't know if there is a god or a devil. Still... It's something to write about." Johnny the Homicidal Maniac Book #7 An admirer of sorts Johnny is surprised by a fanboy on his doorstep. Jimmy, or "Mmy", is given a fair chance to leave before Johnny reverts to his evil, evil ways. Mmy talks about horrible crimes he did, and his last words before Nny smashes him with a hammer is: "I'm just like you." Nny concludes after smashing a hammer into his open chest, "I don't like myself much." Untitled Nny tries to patch things up with Devi by calling her and playing a tape-recorded message. Devi handles the situation "delicately". Untitled Nny is studying Mr. Samsa (the resident immortal roach) instead of killing him to learn how to obliterate all of his emotions. Then he and the Bub's Burger Boy get into a conversation about what has happened inside and out of Nny's mind since he came back from hell. Bub's burger boy is taking over his mind, so he locks him in his basement. Good luck, Squee! Johnny pops in on Squee to bid farewell. Squee's dad breaks in and is promptly dispatched by a toy to the head by guess who. Nny gives his advice and says good night to his neighbor. The end "Dear Die-ary, There's nothing terribly wrong with feeling lost, so long as that feeling precedes some plan on your part to actually do something about it. Too often a person grows complacent with their disillusionment, perpetually wearing their "discomfort" like a favorite shirt. I can't say I'm very pleased with where my life is just now... But I can't help but look forward to where it's going, and I hope one day...I'm as cold and unfeeling as the moon in the sky." ---- Category:Jhonen Vasquez's Work